I'm such a stud-ette.

Because I like to brag about how awesome I am, here's an excerpt from an email I just sent to my old Body Pump instructor back in Wales:

Apparently they did hire that horrid instructor I was telling you about - she was there again last Friday, and sadly has not improved an iota over the last month or so. I thought she just wasn't counting out the beats for us (instead of saying "singles" or "two-twos", she just sort of says "up, down" a few times and then leaves it to us to remember when the tempo changes!), but then another regular pointed out to me later that she actually didn't know the routine at all - I thought the shoulder track seemed easier than usual, and it was because this woman had us just doing 2's the whole time! So after class, the girl who had been standing behind me came up and told me I looked really good (I think she meant my form, but I'm going to take it as that my body looks really good too), and she asked how long it took me to get used to the class, because this was only like her second time doing it and she'd been totally lost thanks to the bonehead instructor. This poor woman didn't even know how to change the weights, so had been using a bar with 5K on either side for everything up until we got to triceps and she physically couldn't! Anyway, she said she was glad she'd been standing behind me because watching me helped her know what she was supposed to be doing. That was the highlight of my day. And then the next day, the other regular and I reported the instructor's incompetence to the gym's owner - I felt bad, because I've never complained about an instructor before, even though there are some I've liked better than others, but in a case like that, it's really unsafe - and the owner thanked us, because I guess this girl isn't even supposed to be teaching on her own, and someone else had let her because they needed a sub. Crazy.

And since we're playing the "look how much I can lift" game (yes, you still win), I'm up to 7.5 for squats, 4.5 for chest, 6 for back, 3.5 for triceps and (almost) biceps, 6 for lunges, and the usual 2.5 for shoulders (if I don't just cheat and keep using the little handweights). Biceps have been the hardest for me lately, and I don't know why I'm so stuck there - I start out at 3.5 but sometimes I have to take off the donut midway through and just use 2.5, which ends up being too light. The only excuse I can come up with is that the weights set we use is the actual BodyPump equipment, and the bar itself is a lot heavier than what we had in Evolution. But I can usually get through the first couple pushups on my feet, and I can do the plank with one foot off the ground now, so I know I'm improving all the time, and when I do come back to Wales and take a class, Gemma and all them will be well impressed with me ;)

It did occur to me that no one but Tina (the actual recipient of this email) probably really cares how much I can lift or the compliments I get at the gym, but then, what's a captive, blog-reading audience for if not this shameless display of self-admiration?